The story
Fiok Festival in Sandema
Fiok, also spelled Feok, is the Builsa people's December festival in Sandema, Ghana's Upper East Region, built around a reenactment of the Battle of Fiisa, where Builsa fighters defeated the slave raider Babatu in the late nineteenth century. War dancers perform the historic battle scenes at the public durbar, making Fiok a festival of resistance history rather than harvest thanksgiving.
In the closing weeks of the nineteenth century, the Builsa people of Sandema handed the slave raider Babatu his defeat at the Battle of Fiisa, ending a two-decade campaign of raids across the region, and that victory is still reenacted every December at the Fiok Festival, also spelled Feok, in Ghana's Upper East Region.